Most consumers buying netbooks weren't buying them for programming, they were buying them to, as their name implies, surf the net, and that made them the first

Most consumers buying netbooks weren't buying them for programming, they were buying them to, as their name implies, surf the net, and that made them the first victims of the mobile device revolution as now you could surf the net much better on a phone or tablet and had better UX and much more addictive apps. Netbooks being used for programming was a very niche use case (maybe not on HN, but in general). Most programmers had more powerful and versatile PCs/laptops at the time for that. That explains why they disappeared so quickly. But yeah, they were excellent for cheap linux devices.